Food dishes for pets and livestock often become infested with ants and other crawling insects. A variety of inventions have provided a method of preventing this by supporting the food dish in a mechanism that requires the crawling insect to pass through a container filled with water before it can reach the animal food. Sinclair, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,301 (1949), disclosed food dishes supported in, and surrounded by, a small trough filled with water. Morey, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,543,465 (1945) disclosed an arrangement wherein the food dish simply sat in the center of a water dish and was attached by a screw arrangement. Prestidge, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,677,350 (1951) disclosed a single molded tray incorporating food dish, water dish, and protective water trough insect barrier into a single device. Sager, in German Pat. No. 1,133,174 (1962), disclosed a food dish elevated on a post rising out of the water dish.
Of the above inventions, only Sager and Morey use the animal watering dish to form the insect barrier to the food dish. Each of these has the food dish centered over the water dish so that the water dish must be much larger than the food dish or the food dish must be supported some modest height above the water dish to allow the animal to reach the water.